Arts of Armenia-Miniatures

Introduction to Armenian Painting

If painting in its broadest meaning is the representation of an image on a flat surface
-- on walls (fresco), on wood (icon), in manuscripts (miniature), on canvas (painting),
on floors (mosaic) -- we know the history of Armenian painting almost exclusively
from the study of the decoration of manuscripts. Monumental wall painting was practiced
in Armenia, but was much less generalized than neighboring Byzantine or Coptic traditions
and very little of what was produced has survived. The extent Armenian mosaics are
strongly influenced by foreign traditions. Icon painting was never practiced in Armenia.
Canvas painting is relatively plentiful, but dates for the most part to the eighteenth
century and later. Thus, whereas the history of Byzantine painting in the Middle Ages
is dependent as much (perhaps even more) on architectural decoration -- mosaics and
frescoes -- and icons as on illuminations, the Armenian tradition is known almost
exclusively from miniature paintings.

A. Iconography: The Composition of a Scene

An understanding of Armenian painting requires the explanation of two terms used universally
in art history: "iconography" and "style." Iconography is the study ("graphy") of
the "icon" (in Greek "image"); what we call an icon today was understood by the Greeks
as a holy image usually painted on wood. Art historians use the term iconography to
refer to the study of the formal composition of a picture and the elements of which
it is made. Iconography also studies the changes and developments of compositional
elements over time. For instance, in the study of the iconography of the Crucifixion
[ 106, 149, 150, 169, 202, 208], specialists identify the elements of the representation: the presence or absence
of the thieves or other witnesses, the clothing of the figures, the background devices,
and so forth. These iconographic details help historians trace the influences of other
artists and traditions on the painter. Armenians often innovated on accepted iconography
of the earliest Christian centuries. T'oros Roslin [ 85, 86, 87, 89, 90] in the thirteenth century is among several important Armenian artists, some of them
anonymous, who illustrated the standard cycle in totally new ways or who painted episodes
rarely represented, thus breaking tradition with the earlier, generally conservative
and standardized Christian iconography.

B. Style: The Artist's Expression

The compositional elements of a painting are, on the other hand, unimportant when
discussing style. The artist's way of painting, his drawing, colors, shading, facial
expressions, rendering of landscape, all of these and other painting techniques make
up the style of a picture. "Impressionism," as an example, is a style that depends
heavily on color, rather than outlining, to render shapes and volumes. The "classical"
style refers to the manner developed by the Greeks and continued by the Romans of
accurately portraying the human form on a flat surface. The Greeks were interested
in showing the body in motion, in revealing the shape and bulk of the body under its
clothing. They tried to paint or sculpt the face and body as idealistically or realistically
as possible [ 184,185, 186, 187, 188, 216].

Classical artists developed rules of proportion and the best artists tried to follow
them closely. In later periods a "classicizing" style was one that tried to imitate
or at least pay attention to the tenets of classical art [ 89]. Armenians, because of their strong dependence on Byzantine Greek models, favored
a classicizing style in the illumination of luxurious Gospels [ 61, 62, 63, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94]. Much of Armenian art, however, shows a style far removed from classical tendencies.
Various ways have been used to describe such non-classical styles: naive, primitive,
provincial, monastic, native [ 64,68, 70, 78, 79, 81, 101, 107, 112, 177, 220]. We find native or Armenian styles in the Vaspurakan school of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries [ 98, 101, 103, 107, 111, 112], or in such manuscripts as the Gospels of 966 [ 64] in the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, or the Gospels of Horomos of 1211 [ 79, 80] or of Khach'en/Arts'akh of 1224 [ 81] both now in the Matenadaran in Erevan. These works, and many others, though different
from each, still share the common trait of ignoring the canons of classical representation.
They display a greater interest in the expression of the figures, which are usually
shown frontally; they often use color and design for purely decorative purposes [
64, 68, 78], apparently indifferent to the criticism that their figures and their garments do
not look as they are in real life. Often there is a naive quality in these miniatures,
producing marvelous artistic effects [ 64, 70, 112]. At times, however, these illuminations are simply the work of untrained and unskilled
monks assigned the task of illustrating manuscripts in a monastic scriptorium.

The eleventh century in Armenian painting is probably the moment when classical and
non-classical styles are most clearly opposed. Manuscripts that were commission by
the aristocracy are not only luxurious, but invariably demonstrate a classicizing
style [ 67, 69, 72]. They are further characterized by superior parchment, goldleaf backgrounds [ 67] and expensive materials. In short, the royalty and higher clergy demanded works
in the best tradition of the Byzantine imperial court. Manuscripts that originated
in rural settings or monasteries used more modest materials, employing yellow paint
for gold. Their style was non-classical, usually hieratic, and in this early period
the figures were painted without background against the plain white parchments [ 64, 78, 98, 101, 103, 107, 111, 112]. These provincial manuscripts were almost without exception painted across the height
of the page [ 68, 70], requiring the viewer to turn the manuscript around to see the scene in its normal
position. Luxury manuscripts, however, have their miniatures in the normal upright
position. This difference in orientation of the paintings between luxury and monastic
manuscripts is virtually unknown in the centuries before and after the eleventh.

C. Illuminated Armenian Manuscripts

The dependence of the history of Armenian art on a single medium, manuscript painting,
is not as serious a handicap as it may seem. Fortunately, a very large number of Armenian
manuscripts are preserved, nearly 30,000, dating from the ninth to the nineteenth
centuries, and produced in every region inhabited by Armenians. Most manuscripts are
devoid of painting; however, at least 10,000 are illuminated or decorated in some
way and of these some 5,000 to 7,000 contain one or more miniatures. The total number
of individual works of art contained in Armenian manuscripts (excluding marginal decorations)
in the tens of thousands. The study of this vast quantity of art and, therefore, the
history of Armenian painting, is still at its very beginning. The manuscripts and
the works of art they contain are preserved in public museums and libraries, the most
important of which are the Matenadaran in Erevan (11,000 whole manuscripts), the Library
of the Mekhitarist Brotherhood at San Lazzaro, Venice (4,000), Armenian Patriarchate
in Jerusalem (4,000), the Library of the Mekhitarist Brotherhood in Vienna (1,200),
the Armenian Catholic Monastery of Bzummar in Lebanon (1,000), the Armenian Monastery
at New Julfa, Isfahan (1,000) and important collections of fewer than 1,000 manuscripts
are kept at the Catholicossate of Etchmiadzin, the Oriental Institute, Leningrad,
the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, Bodleian Library, Oxford, the British Library,
London, the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, the Catholicossate of Cilicia, Antelias,
University of California, Los Angeles, and the Vatican Library. Hundreds of other
libraries have small, but artistically very important, collections, for instance the
Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, the Pierpoint Morgan Museum in New York, the Walters
Gallery in Baltimore, and the John Rylands Library in Manchester. To date no detailed
history of Armenian miniature painting has been published. However, the meticulous
work of the late Sirarpie Der Nersessian, spanning six decades, has prepared the groundwork
and provided a methodology for such a history. Her major study on the painting of
the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia serves as a model for a general history of all of
Armenian art.

The most important problem in the study of Armenian painting is access to the works.
Very few manuscripts have been adequately and individually published. Until recently,
the major collections of manuscripts lacked published catalogues. This situation has
been changed in the past four decades thanks to the publication of manuscript catalogues
undertaken by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Though these catalogues usually
list the miniature paintings in each manuscript, they are not designed to include
illustrations. Furthermore, only volume one of a projected detailed catalogue of the
Matenadaran collection has thus far appeared, describing just 300 of the 11,000 manuscripts
in the collection; scholars must rely on the abridged two volume catalogue, which,
unfortunately, fails to list illuminations. To a lesser degree the same can be said
of the Venice Mekhitarist collection; the first three volumes of the detailed printed
catalogue cover fewer than a quarter of the manuscripts. On the other hand, a large
number of albums of the most important miniatures from various collections have been
published. Yet, the history of Armenian painting cannot be limited to its masterpieces;
it must be based on the works of all periods, regions, styles, and artists.

D. The Production of Manuscripts

The modern idea we have of artists as independent creators devoting their entire lives
to the creation of works of art was inherited from the Renaissance. In the medieval
Christian world of which Armenia was a part, artists as architects were usually anonymous
and usually members of the clergy. Manuscript production was carried on exclusively
by monks or priests employed in churches or monasteries. The performance of the church
service was dependent on liturgical books, foremost of which was the Gospels, and,
therefore, there was a constant need for them. Each monastery had its scriptorium
where manuscripts were copied, illustrated and bound by a team. There was a division
of labor and skills, though it was not uncommon for a scribe to illustrate and bind
his own manuscript. Some Armenian kings also supported their own scriptoria, employing
clergy trained in the various aspects of manuscript production.

The problems of attribution of Armenian painting, however, are much rarer than in
Byzantine or medieval European art. Armenian scribes from the earliest times seldom
failed to leave a precise memorial at the end of a manuscript after the copying was
finished. In a sense a manuscript was considered incomplete without the personal colophon
(in Armenian yishatakaran, literally memorandum or memorial from the verb yishel/hishel,
to remember) of the scribe and at times the artist or binder, if they were different
people. These concise notices of varying length usually mentioned the scribe's name
as well as that of the artist, the date, the place of execution of the manuscript,
the name of the patron, the names of the ruler and the reigning catholicos, and a
variety of historical and miscellaneous information. Thanks to this information most
Armenian miniatures are precisely dated and ascribed to an artist by name. It is only
with manuscripts that have been worn by constant use that we are deprived of the exact
date and place of production and the names of artist and scribe, because colophons,
usually written on the last pages after the text, were lost or torn off during rebinding.
In these cases, date, place and artist are determined by an analysis of the script
and the style of the art.

E. The Contents of Armenian Miniature Painting

There is really only a single subject for Armenian miniature painting, at least until
the late medieval period: The Life of Christ. The Four Gospels was the most illustrated
Armenian text. With few exceptions, all surviving, illustrated Armenian manuscripts
dated before 1300 are Gospels; the exceptions are a manuscript of the poems of Gregory
of Narek dated 1173 with four portraits of Gregory [ 75], a series of Bibles [118 from the seventeenth century], the earliest from the thirteenth
century, illustrated Psalters, among the oldest that of Leo III dated 1283, Lectionaries,
among the oldest that of Het'um II of 1286 [ 91- 92], as well as hymnals and ritual books, again mostly from the late thirteenth century.
The earliest secular works to be illustrated also date from the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, but they are very rare, the most popular being the Alexander Romance and
the Histories of Eghishé and Agat'angeghos [ 115].

F. Gospel Illustrations

The single work most reproduced in the Armenian manuscript tradition was the Four
Gospels. Entire Bibles [ 118] containing the Old and New Testaments are rare and date from the thirteenth century
on, complete New Testaments [ 97], that is the Gospels plus the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, are even rarer.
About twenty per cent of surviving Armenian manuscripts are Gospels or Bibles. Prior
to the seventeenth century, before printed Bibles began to circulate, the percentage
was even higher. Nearly all illuminated Armenian manuscripts up to the twelfth century
are Gospels. Since the Gospels were the most copied and illustrated work in ancient
and medieval Armenia, and since the contents of the four Gospels -- Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John -- are devoted to the life of Christ, the subject matter of Armenian
painting is almost entirely composed of scenes from the important moments of His life.
Beside the narrative scenes with their figures and landscapes, miniature painters
had to be skilled in drawing animal and bird forms [ 65, 66, 94], geometric and floral decorations [ 71, 104] of great complexity, Evangelists' [ 67, 74, 77, 100, 117] and donor portraits [ 69, 75, 87], and very ornate letters used from the earliest times to illuminate and ornament
canon tables [ 62, 65, 71, 79, 84, 90, 104], chapter headpieces and the opening lines of each Gospel.

G. The Conventions of Illuminating Armenian Gospels

The illustrating of a Gospel manuscript followed a fixed pattern. Some believe that
a general system became traditional already in the fourth century after Christianity
was accepted by the Roman Empire. Since the Empire controlled all of Europe, North
Africa, and most of the Middle East, including Syria, Palestine, Egypt and most of
Armenia, nearly all early Christians came under its jurisdiction. Immediately after
the invention of the alphabet in the early fifth century, the work of translating
the Bible into Armenian began. The translation was based mainly on Greek manuscripts.
Though no illustrated Gospel in western languages from the fourth or fifth centuries
survives, and the oldest complete Armenian Gospel is of the ninth century, scholars
have concluded that Armenian Gospels, like those of neighboring countries, followed
an arrangement established in this early paleo-Christian period.

Along with the texts of the four Evangelists, the complete Gospels had an elementary
index arranged in a series of tabular columns called canons placed at the beginning
of the book. These canons [ 62, 65, 71, 79, 84, 90, 104] were usually decorated and preceded by a text in the form of a letter explaining
their use. It was also customary to include a portrait of each of the Evangelists
[ 67, 74, 77, 100, 117]; these were in time individually placed on the left hand page facing the opening
lines of each Gospel. These first pages of text in Armenian Gospels were also decorated
quite lavishly. In the body of the text, which was usually written in two columns
to a page [ 91, 99, 116], marginal decorations of various kinds -- birds [ 261, 262], fish, crosses, floral and geometric motifs, even small narrative scenes [ 99] -- were often introduced.

Finally, in the more important Gospel manuscripts there was a series of full page
paintings usually placed together at the beginning of a manuscript, just after the
Canon Tables. These can be divided into three types: symbolic representations (e.g.,
a cross) [ 66], portraits (e.g., the Virgin) [ 64, 69], narrative scenes from the life of Christ (e.g., Baptism) [ 61, 63, 68, 70, 72, 73, 76, 80, 82, 85, 86, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114].

1. Canon Tables

The index to the four Gospels as represented by the canon tables was perfected by
Eusebius, a fourth-century bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. His explanation of this
system was formulated in a letter [ 94], always included in Gospel manuscripts just before the canons, addressed to his
friend Bishop Carpianus. The letter was placed on two or in early manuscripts on three
pages under decorated arches, followed by the columns of the canon tables also under
decorated arches or arcades. Both the Mlk'é Gospels [ 62, 63] of 851-862, the oldest dated Armenian Gospel, and the Etchmiadzin Gospels [ 65, 66] of 989 have elaborate canon tables. As the Armenian tradition became conventionalized,
the Letter of Eusebius was placed on two facing pages followed by the ten canon tables
often in five pairs, each pair of similar decoration and on facing pages. In the lunettes
of the arches of the Eusebian Letter, portraits of Eusebius [ 94] and Carpianus were executed. Above the columns of the canon tables a variety of
birds, animal and human figures were painted sometimes of fabulous origin [ 71, 104]. Until the eleventh century, the canon arcades were free standing arches [ 62, 63, 64, 65], but in that century and later the arc of the arch was enclosed in a decorative
rectangle [ 71, 79, 90, 104] supported by the columns of the arch itself. In some luxury Gospels of the Cilician
period, a lavish twin page dedication highlighted in gold was also added and decorated
like the canon arcades.

The source for the decorative program of the canon tables seems to go back to Eusebius,
who produced fifty Gospel manuscripts with the canon index commanded by Emperor Constantine
before his own death in 338. Though none of these have survived, we know they were
recopied already in the same fourth century. Specialists regard certain Armenian canon
tables of the ninth and tenth centuries [ 62, 65] as faithful models of the prototype of five centuries earlier. Medieval Armenian
treatises on the decoration of canon tables, one of them by Nersés Shnorhali, have
survived, but artists seemed not to follow them word for word. Nevertheless, such
traditions as placing peacocks above the arch of the Eusebian Letter at the beginning
of the series, have been consistently and universally maintained. Artists from the
very beginning, the Mlk'é Gospel is a good illustration, often used the canon tables
for painting secular scenes [ 79, 263] from everyday life, at times even with fabulous creatures [ 104]. Within an artistic tradition whose task was primarily, at times exclusively, the
decoration of the Holy Scriptures, painters simply had no outlet to render contemporary
or imaginative scenes. Within the context of Gospel decoration, in which the figures
and scenes of regular miniatures were proscribed by the Gospel narrative, the neutral
support of the canon tables -- collectively nothing more than an index -- was apparently
an acceptable medium for non-religious images [ 62, 71, 79, 263]. As with every other facet of Gospel illumination, the canon tables were decorated
in an ever evolving manner though the essential elements remained the same. The variety
used by the best craftsmen not only demonstrated their personal skills but reflected
the styles and tastes in various regions of Armenia in different epochs. The complexity
of the patterned decoration of the canons of the eleventh-century Trebizond Gospel
[ 67] or the elegance and beauty of those of Cilician Gospels of the thirteenth century
[ 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92 , 93, 94], demonstrate that the most commonplace motif can serve as an adequate support for
brilliant and innovative art.

2. Portraits of the Evangelists

In the earliest Gospels, the Evangelists were often portrayed in pairs, either standing
or seated. Such is the case of the oldest surviving Christian manuscript, the Rabbula
Gospels, written in Syriac in 586. Gradually in the Byzantine tradition, to which
Armenian artists owe so much, a preference developed for separate portraits of each
of the Evangelists who were usually shown seated before a writing stand in the act
of composing. The original model for this pose goes back to portraits of philosophers
and physicians in pre-Christian classical manuscripts. The earliest Armenian Gospels
display both traditions. The Mlk'é Gospels reserve a single full page portrait for
each Evangelists, but two are shown seated and two standing. The Tarkmanch'ats' Gospels
of 966 in the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, have pairs of evangelists painted
at the end of the texts between Gospels. The Trebizond Gospels of the eleventh century
had both individual portraits of the Evangelists seated [ 67] and a fifth folio page on which all four Evangelists are represented, though in
separate squares.

In time, however, the portraits developed a standardized form, each separate, usually
rendered in a seated position facing the first highly ornamented page of text [ 67, 75 (Narek), 77, 98, 100, 107].

The elaborate title pages, crowned by a decorated rectangular or trilobed headpiece,
usually featured the symbol associated with each of the Evangelists in their decorative
scheme. These were borrowed from those of Ezekiel's chariot in the Old Testament.
Three were animal: the lion of St. Mark, the ox of St. Luke, and the eagle of St.
John; St. Mathew was represented by an angel. By the twelfth century these figures
were painted near the initial letter of the opening line of each Gospel. By the thirteenth
century, especially in Cilician workshops, they were often fashion into the shape
of the first letter of the respective texts.

Portraits in Gospels were not limited just to the Evangelists. From earliest times
the Virgin [ 64], was portrayed either alone or with Jesus. Gospels also provided Armenian art with
real life portraits of contemporaries [ 69, 87]. The donor who commissioned a manuscript often required that his own likeness be
included. One of the most striking of early portraits is that of high Byzantine official
Hovhannés the Protospathery in the Gospel made for him in 1007 in Adrianople now in
the Venice Mekhitarist collection. It is from similar donor portraits of Armenian
kings and queens [ 69, 87] of the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries that we have some idea of the likeness
of medieval aristocracy.

3. Narrative Miniatures

The subjects of the major miniatures of an illuminated Gospels were taken from those
events in Christ's life most celebrated by the church. Old Testament scenes, especially
the Sacrifice of Abraham, are sometimes found in older Gospels as parallels to New
Testament episodes, and naturally in illustrated Bibles [ 118] and Lectionaries [ 92, 265]. The oldest Armenian miniatures, dated by formal and stylistic considerations to
the late sixth or early seventh century, are four paintings on two leaves of parchment
[ 61] removed from their original manuscript, no doubt a Gospel book, and bound at the
end of the famous Etchmiadzin Gospels of 989. These "Final Miniatures" of the Etchmiadzin
Gospel, as they are called by art historians, represent two Annunciations (one to
the High Priest Zechariah and the other to the Virgin), the Presentation of the Magi
[ 61] (a representation of the Nativity), and the Baptism. Armenian manuscripts of the
ninth and tenth centuries confirm the practice of painting large scenes on individual
pages and grouping these miniatures of varying number together with the canon tables
and the Evangelists' portraits in a special gathering at the beginning of the Gospels.
This is the case for all illustrated Armenian Gospel manuscripts of the ninth and
the tenth centuries (there are about fifteen), the single exception being the Gospels
of 966 [ 64] already mentioned.

4. The Gospel Cycle: The Life of Christ

In both style and the elements of composition Armenian art is deeply indebted to Byzantine
art. The Byzantine church, part of the universal church until the formal break with
Rome in the eleventh century, developed a more rigid structure of great church feasts
than did the Armenian, which after the fifth century went its own independent way.
In the realm of art, the Greeks were deeply attached to the icon, a religious painting
on wood, whereas the Armenians seemed never attracted by the medium and generally
were against image worship and even their display in church. The Byzantine liturgical
calendar celebrated the great Christian feasts; these were the main subjects for icons
along with the Virgin [ 64] and favorite saints [ 88, 96, 115, 119].

By the eleventh and twelfth centuries large icons were painted which depicted in chronological
sequence the church feasts. A standard cycle of twelve scenes came into being, whether
because of the convenience of dividing icons into twelve panels or whether by association
with the number of Apostles or both reasons, is not important. For centuries after,
this cycle of twelve included the following subjects: the Annunciation [ 73, 93, 110], Nativity [ 61, 85, 109], Presentation in the Temple, Baptism [ 70, 72, 76], Transfiguration [ 113], Raising of Lazarus [ 83], Entry into Jerusalem [ 80], Crucifixion [ 106], Resurrection [ 91, 103], Ascension [ 63, 103, 108], Pentecost [ 68, 86, 102, 111], and Dormition of the Virgin.

The first six of these is concerned with Jesus's life from birth to his last week;
the second six are concerned with Christ's passion and events following it. (The meaning
of the scenes will be explained under the section devoted to iconography.) All of
these episodes are also important in the Armenian church except for the Dormition.
In Armenia the worship of the Virgin Mary never developed as it did in the West. The
Dormition of the Virgin, that is her death, is represented very few times in Armenian
miniatures and usually under foreign influence. The Armenians, at least in their art,
never developed a fixed number of twelve liturgical scenes, and cycles of sixteen
miniatures and more are common. Other scenes were also employed; miracles like the
Marriage Feast at Cana [ 105, 267], the Healing of the Paralytic [ 101], Washing of the Feet [ 114], Last Supper [ 82, 112], Entombment [ 97], Jesus with the Apostles after the Resurrection [ 89], Massacre or the Innocents [ 95], and the Stoning of St. Stephen [ 88]. We have already observed that in the Final Miniatures of the Etchmiadzin Gospel
[ 61] there were only four scenes and the largest surviving cycle until the year 1000,
contained in a late tenth century manuscript now in the Vienna Mekhitarist collection,
is composed of only five scenes grouped together, beginning with the Sacrifice of
Abraham (an event not part of the Gospel narrative), followed by the Annunciation,
Nativity, Baptism, and ending with the Crucifixion.

In the eleventh century, the first part of which was a period of great prosperity
under the Bagratids, Arts'runis and other dynasties, we have a clearer picture of
the composition of Gospel miniatures. Of the forty surviving illustrated Gospel manuscripts
or fragments from the eleventh century, some fifteen have one or more narrative paintings
[ 68, 69, 70, 72] as opposed to only five from all the preceding periods. Five of these manuscripts
have cycles of from seven to fifteen miniatures grouped together at the beginning
of the codex. Scenes such as the Visitation, Last Supper [ 82, 112], Betrayal of Judas, Descent from the Cross, Entombment [ 97], and the Women at the Empty Tomb (Resurrection) [ 91, 103], make their appearance for the first time.

Two manuscripts from the middle of the eleventh century have very extensive cycles
of large and small miniatures of major and minor episodes scattered throughout the
four Gospels rather than grouped at the beginning. One of these codices, the famous,
partially mutilated, Gospels of King Gagik of Kars [ 69], now in the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem, is of great artistic beauty and
in style very dependent on Byzantine court art. The other, the newly discovered Gospel
of the Catholicos, now in the Matenadaran in Erevan and probably executed in Arts'akh,
is painted in a provincial, Armenian style, far removed from the classical tradition
of the other. When manuscript production started again in the second half of the twelfth
and especially the thirteenth centuries after the devastation of the Seljuk Turkish
invasions, both methods of illustration -- grouping narrative miniatures together
at the beginning or continuously illustrating the text with an expanded cycle -- were
practiced.

H. Cilician Period

The greatest moment of Armenian miniature painting is the thirteenth century. The
wealth of the new Armenian kingdom of Cilicia situated in the mountains surrounding
the Mediterranean coastal plain allowed the nobility and high ranking clergy to sponsor
the production of luxury Gospels [ 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 265]. Contact with the West through the Crusades and Italian merchants also contributed
to the creation of a highly sophisticated and eclectic art. In the same period several
Armenian manuscripts were executed in Italy [ 84].

The most distinguished artist of the epoch was indisputably T'oros Roslin [ 85, 86, 87, 89, 90], who during the 1260s headed the scriptorium at the catholicossal see of Hromkla.
Seven of his signed manuscripts have survived [ 89] and some fragments are also clearly attributed to him. His art is characterized
by a delicacy of color, a very fine classical treatment of figures and their garments,
an elegance of line, and an innovative iconography.

Roslin was a very accomplished scribe as well. The works that have come down to us
are all extremely luxurious and use gold copiously for backgrounds and details. Roslin's
decorative skill as seen on canon tables [ 90] and headpieces is also rich and varied. Unfortunately, we know almost nothing about
his life nor the dates of the painter's birth and death. Other artists working either
with Roslin or in neighboring centers were also very skilled [ 88]. Toward the end of the century, the delicate rendering of Roslin gives way to a
more nervous, mannered style evident in the superb Lectionary of king Het'um [ 91, 92, 265] dated 1286 with more than 200 miniatures of varying size.

Several manuscripts display this highly mannered style [ 93, 94, 95], but all of their artists remain anonymous. In the next century the name of Sarkis
Pidzak dominates artistic production. Though very prolific, he has much reduced the
artistic conventions of the best of the Cilician artists such as Roslin and those
working in the mannered style of the end of the thirteenth century. His figures are
smaller and much less well drawn; his colors are bright but lacking the subtlety and
renaissance echo of the third-quarter of the thirteenth century. Another important
miniaturist of the fourteenth century working in the north, in Greater Armenia, was
T'oros of Taron [ 102, 104]. His manuscripts are artistically of very high quality and iconographically very
interesting. The newly published study on T'oros of Taron's art by T. Mathews and
A. Sanjian will serve as a model for the proper study of individual Armenian manuscripts
and artists.

I. Crimea, Vaspurakan, Julfa

After the thirteenth century, Armenian miniature painting flourishes simultaneously
in a variety of regions each with a characteristic style. In the Crimea, where a large
Armenian colony had gradually migrated after the fall of the Bagratid kingdom in the
eleventh century, miniature painting was strongly influenced by the Byzantine classicizing
style [ 105, 106, 108], with emphasis on naturalism. In Van/Vaspurakan, an opposing style became traditional,
one naive in its outlook, probably of native Armenian inspiration [ 98, 101, 103, 107, 111, 112]. Figures with very round faces and large eyes with dark pupils were usually drawn
against the white of the parchment or paper. The iconography of the Van school often
departs from the standard, displaying at times echoes of an ancient tradition and
at times an imaginatively original interpretation of the text. At the end of the sixteenth
century, a talented school of miniaturists developed at Julfa on the Arax [ 117, 171], a rich merchant city whose adventurous traders established Armenian commerce from
Amsterdam and Venice to Aleppo and India. After the city's destruction by Shah Abas
in 1604 and the forced migration of its inhabitants to the newly created suburb --
New Julfa [ 57] -- of his capital Isfahan, artists from old Julfa [ 140, 154, 155] with the Julfa style continued to flourish throughout much of the seventeenth century.

J. Seventeenth Century and After

In the seventeenth century, in Constantinople, the Crimea, New Julfa and other centers,
there was a conscious revival of the elegant Cilician style of miniature painting
[ 119]. Leading artists understood that painting had greatly declined in the fifteenth
and especially sixteenth centuries and consciously copied miniatures from the best
Cilician Gospels available to them. Manuscript production continued in Armenia even
into the late eighteenth century [ 120], even though Armenian book printing [ 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296] had begun in the early sixteenth. The copying of Gospel manuscripts practically
stopped, however, after the first printing of the Armenian Bible in Amsterdam in 1666
[ 281]. The influence of western artistic tastes became evident after the sixteenth century
with the increased involvement of Armenians in international trade. Interest in European
painting grew among the wealthy in such Armenian centers as Constantinople and Isfahan-Julfa;
Armenian artists began painting on panel and canvas. Armenian art began to include
an ever increasing quantity of larger framed paintings, consequently, the art of the
miniaturist declined, despite sporadic production throughout the eighteenth century.

61. MS 2374, Etchmia...

62. MS 1144/86, Quee...

63. MS 1144/86, Quee...

64. Baltimore, Walte...

65. MS 9430G, fragme...

66. MS 2374, Etchmia...

67. MS 1400/108, Tre...

68. Jerusalem, Armen...

69. Jerusalem, Armen...

70. MS 6201, , Taron...

71. MS 7736, Mugni ,...

72. MS 7736, Mugni ,...

73. MS 2877, , XIIth...

74. MS 7737, , XIIth...

75. MS 1568, Prayers...

76. MS 1635, , Skevr...

77. MS 311, Sebastia...

78. MS 1366, , 1200,...

79. MS 6288, Haghbat...

80. MS 6288, Haghbat...

81. MS 4823, , 1224,...

82. MS 2743, T'argma...

83. New Julfa, Isfah...

84. MS 1374, Rome, 1...

85. Jerusalem, Armen...

86. Baltimore, Walte...

87. Jerusalem, Armen...

88. MS 56.11, execut...

89. MS 32.18, , 1268...

90. MS 10675, execut...

91. MS 979, Lectiona...

92. MS 979, Lectiona...

93. MS 9422, , Cilic...

94. MS 197, , Akner,...

95. MS 7651, of the ...

96. MS 6305, , Siuni...

97. MS 6792, New Tes...

98. MS 4052, , Arche...

99. MS 3722, , Nakhi...

100. MS 546, Tiflis ...

101. MS 2744, , Arch...

102. MS 1917, , 1307...

103. MS 7456, , Arts...

104. MS 6289, 1323, ...

105. MS 7664, Crimea...

106. MS 7644, of Smb...

107. MS 4813, , 1338...

108. MS 7408, Lectio...

109. MS 6230, , Glad...

110. MS 7482, , 1378...

111. MS 8772, , Aght...

112. MS 316, , Arts'...

113. MS 942, , Magha...

114. MS 133/1251, , ...

115. MS 1920, Histor...

116. MS 1028, XVIth ...

117. MS 7639, , Isfa...

118. MS 351, Bible, ...

119. Vienna, Mekhita...

120. MS 1571, Ritual...

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